Yesterday I received a email solicitation from an author who has both self published and published with a well known digital first house to promote her kickstarter campaign. I think we all know how I feel about kickstarter campaigns (don’t like them)

I wanted to let you know about my Kickstarter campaign, ‘XXX XXXXX!’. This is an exciting new way of self-publishing which produces a better quality product while giving readers great rewards. It really is win/win!

I need to raise funds to get my next self-published novel professionally edited. I love this book and I really want it to be the best that it possibly can be. You can see all the details about the editing costs on the campaign page here: [link removed]

Depending on your pledge level, you can receive a personalised ebook copy, a limited edition print copy (although how the author funds this when she doesn’t have the money for the editing, I’m not sure), or other sundries. Of course, any reader can choose to fund a project, but let’s be clear what this is. Readers are asked to gift money to the author. It is not an advance because the reader isn’t risking money for a possible profit at the end like the publisher. It is an outright gift, with different levels of thank you from the author.

The reason I have a problem with this is two fold. First, shouldn’t we readers get a professionally edited book regardless of whether a kickstarter is funded? In other words, if the kickstarter does not get funded does the book get put out unedited with a note: readers didn’t give enough to get this edited so you’ll have to live with this. Second, out of everyone in the publishing ecosystem, the reader is the only party that puts out money with no expected ROI unlike the author, publisher, or other parties involved with content creation.

It is up to each reader to decide for herself what she wants to do with her own money, but given the rise of the Street Team and now Kickstarter projects where authors beg for funding, the reader is being asked to do everything from fund a project to marketing it. I want to have edited books and I don’t like the idea that I have to prepay to get it. But if these projects start to become successful, then I would expect an increase in these sort of funding drives.

***

Howey, Stephenson join Kindle Worlds – Annnnd here comes the licensed fan fiction. Authors like Howey, Neil Stephenson, and other Amazon published authors (all male weirdly) have signed agreements to allow Amazon to include their world in the Kindle Worlds licensed fan fiction publishing arm. The licensing terms* seem pretty awful for the writers of fan fiction but hey, no one is twisting their arm. I just want to reiterate how I think someone else, like a major author entity, should be doing this instead of Amazon but this, again, will fall on deaf ears. The Bookseller

*At Scalzi’s blog, he writes one of the terms is as follows “Amazon Publishing will acquire all rights to your new stories, including global publication rights, for the term of copyright.”

Fault in Our Stars

15 Awesome Young Adult Book-Inspired Manicures – Want your fingers to tell a story? You could try one of these YA Book inspired manicures. I’m hardly talented enough to paint my own nails let alone draw clouds on mine but it is a neat idea. Book Riot

First impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom, Active, Mega, and Mini smart phones – I saw Angela James (Editorial Director of Carina Press and a good friend) at BEA this year with a big Samsung Galaxy. She abandoned the iPhone for this sucker (and who says size doesn’t matter?) I’ve been paying close attention to Samsung ever since I saw Angie’s fancy phone. The new models look pretty amazing including one that works fully submerged and another with a 6.9″ screen. Apple better step up its product line. New icons just aren’t going to cut it anymore.ConsumerReports

The Chip Bag Fold – Robin tweeted this link about how to fold a bag shut using a few origami techniques. This is so obvious I can’t believe I haven’t used it. Goodbye chip clips. Origami Resource Center

Finally because I don’t want to start the weekend being outraged, I leave you with this. It is a 16 minute short film. It’s a romance about spreading joy:

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Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty.
You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

I’ve noticed more authors wanting to self publish are using Kickstarter to raise the money they need for this venture. When I see how much money they want to raise, which is thousands of dollars, my jaw dropped. I really have to wonder why such high of a price because I know many self publishing at not even 1/4 of that price and most are professional edited and use professional services for their covers. One author on Kickstarter wanted to raise $7k to self publish. Really? That seems so high. Also, if it costs that much to self publish an individual book, would so many self publish as they have?

For me, the ROI of a Kickstarter is twofold: I get the end product; I have the immense pleasure and satisfaction of being a patron of an artist in an ancient tradition. Extra goodies and rewards might be nice, but I’m usually more interested in that when it’s an artist ( original art, etc.). Getting a “walk-on part” or helping name a character might be nice. Don’t need the bookmarks and cellphone danglies.

What I HATE is that someone with a Kickstarter project solicited me directly through emails recently. Someone I’ve never heard of, who maybe targeted me because I support a ton of projects (sometimes with just a dollar or two, what I might spend on an eBook–I’m not Renaissance-patron rich). Spamming me is an absolute guarantee I won’t support the project. I truly hope Kickstarter-spam isn’t the wave of the future.

I’ve contributed money (not through kickstarter) before to authors for publication of non-contracted books in a ‘verse I was already invested in. However, that was a) Sharon Lee and Steve Miller and b) for my investment, when the book was published, I got an actual signed hardback book.

I know tons of people who happily donated to the Veronica Mars movie on kickstarter. (I don’t watch, so I didn’t donate). And really, it’s quite ingenious of authors to do the same for their self-pub books. If their fans are such that they’re willing to give money to ensure a book that they really want is written and published, I don’t think it’s a big deal. I definitely object to being randomly solicited for it, but I can see the appeal to authors and readers who are desperate to read a book that isn’t getting picked up by a publisher and the author can’t afford to self-pub.

1. I like kickstarter in general. Individual campaigns (or individual contributors) may be a little fou, but the whole idea of driving funding this way (especially if you were going to “go outside” for funding anyway) I think is pretty cool.

2. My first reaction upon reading the posted campaign plea is “Oh great.” This is going to tap right into those crazy reader fans who will now have even more reason to think that they are closer to an author or project, than they really are. It’s not like we need some of the militant reviewers on amazon to feel even more possessive about a book, right? :)

3. OK, calm down. You (meaning me) are lucky to be friends with two successful, if not large, authors with crazy geek followings, and you get the benefit of saying you’re friends with them without actually having read their works. Waitaminute! BOTH of your friends have run successful kickstarters to fund their book projects.

So, I’ll be first to admit that my perspective both adds bias and perspective to my opinion here. In the end though, I think for me it comes down to the way the kickstarter is pitched and what is being “sold” to the backers. In both my friends’ cases, the money was going to multiple phases of the publication cycle, making the printed end-product better (more color pages for example), or a larger run, extra associated paraphernalia for higher-tier supporters.

From that perspective, if readers want to contribute more than the price of 1 copy to support the author (and they understand that they’re gifting more money than they need to), I’m happy that they get suggested levels to contribute at and may get a little something extra in return. And I’ve always felt like they were honest with their fans that the fans would help contribute to the project funding.

On the other hand, at least from the excerpt posted, it sounds like this author Jane found is almost trying to hoodwink people. When I read that it sort of screams to me “Hey look, this is a new way to do things” (it’s not), “it produces a better product” (not guaranteed), “You win, I win” (why do readers have to “win”?).

And yes, my gut reaction on the “if it doesn’t get funded, my story doesn’t get professionally edited” bit was “If you’re going to write something, shouldn’t it get edited anyways, with or without reader assistance? and as a first house published author, shouldn’t you have some funds?” though I’m a little more sympathetic here having a) just recently done a quick look up of free-lance editing costs, and b) this gut feeling like “what if she’s trying to break away from her publisher?”

@Ren: I’ve heard this line of thought before and I’m not unsympathetic. But if, say, I wanted to do some fancy art or publishing project, I wouldn’t have the funds (medical bills once ate my universe). And contributing five dollars, or the twenty dollars I might spend on cheap impulse eBook downloads this month, isn’t onerous for me, but might help launch an author, artist, play, movie, guerrilla art installation. It’s when established publishers try to use Kickstarter as a way of doing business as usual that I get cranky. There was a recent comics Kickstarter where the authors fully acknowledged that the book was being published by a not-tiny nonprofit press, but they wanted $20k to fund the project anyway, and were still only giving away limited numbers of the final book. Basically they wanted a salary/bigger advance. I was very surprised they met their goal, since, from my point of view, they already had a sponsor/patron/Medici benefactor behind the project–their publisher’s business. But clearly they have fans who love them. (I’m not one of them. I’m still cranky.)

I’ve never done a Kickstarter campaign (asking or giving money), though I’ve looked pretty close at a lot of them (I’ve seen some cool looking games and things out there). Having said that, I see no problem with them. If you like the idea of a book enough to pre-pay in order to ensure that it becomes available, then go do so. If what an author is offering makes you say “meh”, then don’t bother. Readers *are* paying for production costs of a book, the only difference is when (before or after the pre-production work is completed). True, the author stands to make more profit in the long run, and a Kickstarter contributor gets just his/her “thank you” gift and nothing else. But if you buy a book that was funded by a publishing house or a self-published author’s own money, it is still the author and/or publisher who stands to make the profit.

And hopefully Kickstarter authors are offering nice thank-you giftss to their donors.

The Kickstarter thing gives me flashbacks to the Darajoy fiasco, but I honestly expect it to do well. Especially if authors treat it as a preorder and the buy-in is less than what the book will cost if you don’t participate (or there’s something special you can only get via the Kickstarter). I’ve funded all kinds of artists on Kickstarter (usually people who require prohibitively expensive set-ups in order to create a home studio) and I love getting to do it. But then I buy 99% of my gifts on Etsy too. I *REALLY* like the idea of funding art and supporting creative people. A lot of writers are in a place in their life where the money to put out a well-edited and professional-looking eBook isn’t really an issue, but a lot of them aren’t (sadly). If a Kickstarter can take the place of a publisher and help expand the selection of stories out there, I don’t see it as a negative (assuming solicitations don’t become endemic and overwhelming).

The Amazon Worlds thing seems questionable to me. Are Howey and Stephenson also signing over THEIR rights for the term of copyright? I’d love to see the contract. Because if you’re letting FF use your setting and characters and those stories are then effectively owned by someone else, it’s kind of hard to then exercise any ownership rights themselves, isn’t it? It just seems like a murky area I’d be wary of wading into (I guess, lucky for me, as a mid-list historical author this is unlikely to ever be a concern for me).

I just traded my Android phone for an iPhone because I’d really grown to hate the Android. It was so heavy, it was like carrying a brick in my purse. It was a good phone, really, but just so clunky. The iPhone’s more uniform shape and lighter size appealed to me. (But I seldom use my phone for anything other than the rare phone call and checking email on the rare vacation, so I’m probably not the typical cell phone user.)

The kickstarter idea might work for me if the level of entry to get a copy of the book when published was reasonable – i.e., $2.00 to get an ebook or $10.00 to get a signed printed trade paperback (most self published print books I have seen are done this way). Having said that, I wonder how many authors who are considering this option are prepared for their contributors’ backlash if they don’t like the book. I would bet that there would be a number of people who believe that contributing to a project up front gives them some say in the end product and if they aren’t happy, they will be very vocal about it (demanding money back etc.). My suspicion is that the latter will ultimately prove to be the downfall of kickstarter projects like this.

I think there is a potential use for a Kickstarter campaign–for instance, if you’re thinking of doing a really pretty limited edition for a book (I dunno, like leather bound or something?), if you only allow people to buy in at the cost of the book if they were to buy it otherwise (or a slightly reduced cost), and if it’s the kind of thing where you’re transparent about costs.

I have thought (in the hmmm, maybe years in the future sense, not in the actual sense of thinking about it in any real way) about using Kickstarter for a mass market print run–where the only buy-in level is $6.99, and where I would ask for 4,000 people to jump in before doing it. In that sense, I’d see Kickstarter as essentially a preorder mechanism which allows me to gauge interest, where if the preorders hit a certain amount I’d go for it.

Or if I were a fancy author, doing a leather-bound version with professional illustrations.

I don’t feel like asking for preorders at a reasonable preorder level is a squicky thing in the same way as asking for people to pay for basic costs of editing.

But my squick level aside, I think a lot of people don’t feel the same way. They know what they’re getting with their Kickstarter project, and if they feel its worth their money, who am I to tell them it isn’t? I’m operating from a position of privilege in having enough operating capital to fund basic expenses, and even though I would feel squicky about doing certain things, I’m not convinced I should feel like its squicky for other people to do it.

I am doing my best to be honest and upfront about the nature of the kickstarter and I am not trying to hoodwink anyone. I completely get that not everyone likes kickstarter, and not everyone is going to like my project. That’s fine. There’s a couple of things I’d like to clarify following comments here.

If I had the money to pay the editor upfront, I would. I don’t. I’ve used the money I’ve earned from my books so far (around $5000) to pay bills. I’m a graduate student, working to fund my studies, and I don’t have savings.

Plan B if the kickstarter fails is not to publish the book unedited. It’s to find another way to fund the editing which I haven’t yet thought of. That might take a while. The kickstarter is, I hope, a way to kickstart the project to get it on the market sooner.

The most popular ‘reward’ so far is a personalised version of the ebook, including a message and digital autograph, for £10. That’s more than the book will sell for, but it seems like for some readers, that’s worth it – either because they want the bonus or they want to support the project. A few have backed it at a lower level of £5, for which they get the standard ebook, and a few at £20, for which they’ll get a print copy.

I’m sorry if my comments come across as harsh or overly judgemental–I guess that’s what I get for not reading the kickstarter details myself and for making assumptions about the author.

Also, thank you for taking the time to explain where you are with things, and how the publication process affects you (again, I suppose I should have found the kickstarter). The two friends I’ve mentioned do have the fortune of being supported by their SOs when times get lean, and I suppose its easy enough to assume everyone is kind of like them, or perhaps doing better. I’m going to try and not assume anything about your support structure or your financial situation beyond what you want to say, but yes, I imagine managing time and money for graduate school is tough enough as it is without having to include a book project along with it.

Please accept my best wishes for success (both with the book and grad school), and my apologies if I offended earlier.

(1) Is this a novella, a short novel, a regular novel, or some other length? The kickstarter page doesn’t say. The cost to pre-buy the book is about $7.50 (5 GBP). That’s a Big 6 novel price, and higher than the average self-published romance, I believe.

(2) Does this cover all four editing passes, i.e., developmental, line, copyedit, proofread? Because it doesn’t seem like enough money given what your editor’s services/fees page quotes and what proofreaders charge.

(3) Is this enough money to ensure the project is completed at the level promised? Because 500 GBP at current exchange rates is about 770 USD. You’ve already budgeted $820 in the description, which is more than the funding minimum. And that doesn’t include Kickstarter’s cut or the cost of the gifts.

I have no problem with supporting a Kickstarter of a proven author as long as the rewards level equals what I would usually pay a publisher for a similar product – so when various short story anthologies with proven writers or books that were not so marketable in scope were released with a clearly laid out plan of who did what – Judith Tarr did her novels via Book View Café support, where a lot of print published editor/writers help each other to publish new and backlist ebooks.

The way is see it, I pay for the privilege of a) getting that book (as always) and b) making sure it exists because the writer can now calculate that income firmly – the writer can after they have finalized everything then offer the book for sale to others at the same initial prize I paid (and does) and start earning royalties.

I’m a sub-publisher putting my money where my interest/mouth is and making sure I get books by authors in genres I want to read.

Of course, that only works when you do know that the author is proven.

1. It’ll be category length. Between 40-45,000 words. So yes, that price is higher than you’ll pay if you wait for publication. (And I will go and add that to the campaign page.)

2 and 3. The primary goal at this stage is to cover the cost of developmental/line editing which will happen in August. The target is set higher than this cost to ensure that there’s enough to cover Kickstarter fees and the cost of the various rewards.

If the project exceeds the funding target, then the excess will go towards the cost of copyediting and proofreading in September. But by September, I will have submitted the thesis and have more time for paid work, so I am confident of being able to pay for this myself.

@Ros – I specifically didn’t link to the kickstarter because I didn’t want it to be focused on one author but the concept behind it. I didn’t want it to be a place where someone had to defend a specific project or, worse, promote a specific project.

@Ros: In that case, the description is quite confusing to me. If the Kickstarter is designed to cover the costs of development and copy editing, why is the copy editing folded in with the proofreading? If it is not covering the copy editing, why is the Kickstarter for 500GBP when the cost of the development editing is less than 210GBP?

On top of that, I now understand that funding the Kickstarter does *not* mean the full costs of the book are funded. (I also assumed that you were going to do the cover and formatting yourself, but perhaps I shouldn’t have assumed that, in which case that’s another cost). But the gifts included the finished book.

In my opinion, the donors should know exactly what will be covered by the Kickstarter minimum and what will still be left to pay for, given that the gifts and the description strongly suggest that if the Kickstarter is funded, the book will be forthcoming.

@Ros: I stalked on over to your Kickstarter. I’m not familiar with your characters (yet) but I love love love the model on the cover. I hope it all comes together.

@Sunita: One clever Kickstarter person included a pie chart showing how big a piece of the goal amount would go for printing, how much for shipping, how much for backer rewards, how much would go to Kickstarter and payment processing fees, and how much for taxes. At the time I thought it was more information than I needed, but I can see how it would be helpful for some potential backers.

Some of those book inspired manicures are pretty cool. I don’t have the patience to do that myself though I’d happily sit around and let someone else do it for me. (I’ve a feeling that should tell me something but I’m not sure what.)

@Sunita: Okay, that’s helpful to know. I’m way too tired to update the page coherently tonight but I will do so. The short answer is that the target is what I think I need to be able to complete the project, given what I think I will be able to put towards it myself. So it’s not intended to cover the full costs, but it is more than just the first round of editing.

I am bereft because my Galaxy S3 (sooo outdated after only 1 year on market) is going into the repair shop today for two weeks. People are making fun of me since “isn’t the phone supposed to be awesome, Preeti?” Whateva! My biggest problem is that the last many dozens of books I’ve read have all been on that phone. What am I going to do now? Buy an actual ebook reader??

I really like the concept of Kickstarter and similar sites. I think it’s a great idea. I don’t think the intention is to publish without getting a book edited if the project doesn’t get fully funded; seems like they want help with the costs of different levels of editing, which can really add up for someone just starting out.

In the UK there’s a similar thing for books only called Unbound and I have supported the Letters of Note coffee table book there. I paid 50 pounds I think and that is very expensive for a hardback book, but here in Australia, that’s not terribly unusual. It will be a limited edition cloth bound beauty and I just loved the idea and felt that was value for my money. So, I can’t without being a hypocrite, say that the concept of the Kickstarter is inherently bad (& I’m not sure I think that anyway). But, I’m not sure how I feel about a campaign just for editing. I tend to think this kind of thing might work best with arty/hard bound books but I don’t have any firm views really.

As to the project mentioned above I do think 5 pounds minimum is a little expensive as that is about $8 (or more) here and that’s way more than I’d ever pay for a category length ebook. But that might say more about my price points than anything else. My personal happy investment level for this kind of project is about what I’d pay anyway and there isn’t an option for me at that level.

I’ve helped fund a good number of Kickstarter projects, including some anthologies (Tobias Buckwell’s first Kickstarter was what got me started on funding books that way), mostly because a lot of the things I help fund I feel should be a part of the world. I see it as voting with my dollars and also trying to ensure that people can see that yes, there is interest in (video games dealing with trans* issues/RPGs featuring female protagonists/sci-fi from non-western countries/breakdowns of gender roles in video games) and yes they are worth pursuing further, despite being told that mainstream publishers of all mediums don’t think they’re worth the risk. I also get these things physically (or digitally) as I tend to back at those levels, but sometimes even a dollar adds to their backer number and more weight to saying yes, there are people who want this, who need this, who think this is important.

It might be strange using it politically instead of just as a chance to get in on cool things first, but my husband and I have backed about 50 projects apiece, some just to see companies/people we really enjoy the works of succeed and get through hard times, and some just because we want to see these things in the world.

I like the idea of Kickstarter but the lack of accountability just wrecks it for me. I guess it’s like the stock market, don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.

I just tried the chip bag fold. Cool.

I really, really like my Galaxy S4. My ereader is still the one electronic device that I don’t want to live without but the S4 has become a close second. That is something I never thought I would say about a phone. Yes, it’s bigger than I wanted but I adjusted. I do use it for reading short stories and the like but if I have more than 15 minutes to spend reading, I go with e-ink.

Preeti, you have my sympathy. I sure hope it doesn’t take two weeks to get your phone fixed.

@MaryK: Read paper? I am so out of practice. The last time I began reading a print book, I had a moment of wondering why it was so difficult until I realized I needed to turn a lamp on. Wow, right? So… I just sucked it up and ordered a Kindle Paperwhite, mostly for the super long battery life. Pity me, for I am reading Nalini Singh’s HEART OF OBSIDIAN on the laptop in the meantime.

My Kickstarter experience has been limited to pledging for two separate campaigns: the Veronica Mars movie and for a new album from a non-mainstream band (Mindless Self-Indulgence.)

FWIW, I pledged because I’m a fan of both VM and MSI and I could understand why they were approaching the funding for their separate projects via Kickstarter.

That said, I feel a little weird regarding pledging for an unknown-to-me artist (be it musician, author, etc.) .

I’ve got a (now old) Android phone that I’ll upgrade soon. For now, my plan is to get an iPhone. I’ve got small hands and, much as I like all the features of the Galaxy S4, those phones are HUGE. Several of my co-workers have them, so I’ve played with them. However, half the time I’m scared that I’ll drop them (again, small hands). I’d hate it if that happened with my new phone. FTR, yes, I know about the Galaxy S4 Mini and was all for getting that until I saw that it was missing some feature from the bigger models.

I’m not completely against Kickstarter, but I don’t like the idea of using it for funding projects that can be done without it. Especially not for fiction. It bothers me. Kickstarter seems more appropriate for projects with such high production costs that they truly won’t get made without funding: HC art books with color plates, physical copies of a narrow subject nonfiction title. Funding something that has the potential to easily earn back its cost seems wrong to me, and little more than a donation straight to the author.

I have mixed feelings about the kickstarter thing (and I have zero experience with it). It seems to be okay with me to use it for a specific project, or to support a new business for start-up costs, but not for running the business.

For example, I’m in a group that publishes a literary journal (shameless plug: http://www.facebook.com/northword ). We’re a non-profit, we have no paid staff, and almost all of the money we raise pays for actual printing costs. At just about every meeting, we talk about how we have just enough to print the next issue (two issues per year), but we need to get more income.

We also have special events to support literature in our community, and we want to put on some writing workshops, but they’re bloody expensive, even if the workshop leaders will work for free. (spoiler: they mostly won’t.)

So I can see using kickstarter to raise money for a workshop (special project), but not for the cost of printing (business as usual). (Note to self, look into using kickstarter to raise money for a workshop.)

I guess the discomfort I’m feeling is that editing is business as usual. I think I would actually be more comfortable with a kick-starter plan to launch a self-publishing business, and the person is raising money for start-up costs, with the idea being that, once the product is out there, the business will be self-sustaining (and therefore the [generic, not specifically Ros] author will not be coming back every book with another kickstarter for production costs).

In any event, good luck, Ros. Good on you for writing a book, and for taking the self-publishing leap, especially while doing grad school. I’m totally exhausted on your behalf.

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